1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to Virtual Machine (VM) technology and, more particularly, to a method and system for generation and management of snapshots of a VM and creation of Centralized Integrated Backup (CIB).
2. Background Art
In the past decade, capabilities of computer systems have increased significantly. Computer systems process large volumes of data, which is changed or updated constantly. In order to track changes of data, files located on a system Hard Disk Drive (HDD) are usually copied, and a system data backup based on these files is created. This enables a user to access previous versions of files, as well as to protect data from possible system failure.
Typically data backup performed on a physical machine does not require saving of any system configurations because the structure of the physical machine remains the same. Thus, making the snapshot of data from HDD is sufficient for generating a backup. Conventional data snapshot is generated by an Operating System (OS) of the physical machine.
The industry trend of virtualization and isolation of computer system resources makes the task of generating backups more complex. A Virtual Machine (VM) is a type of an isolated Virtual Execution Environment that runs on the same physical machine simultaneously. Each VM instance executes its own OS kernel. Support of Virtual Machines is implemented using a Virtual Machine Monitor and/or a Hypervisor.
Virtualization allows running a number of VMs on the same physical machine or processor. Thus, scheduling and controlling efficient backups of data among numerous VMs becomes even more crucial. Furthermore, configuration of each of the VMs can be changed by a user. Thus, saving snapshots of all previous states of a particular VM into a backup is critical.
Typically data backups are performed by system administrators according to backup schedules. With Virtual Machines it is important to allow users to perform backups at any time, when the state of the VM is about to change.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and a method for generating snapshots of various states of the VMs by users and incorporating these virtual snapshots into an integrated backup.